THE NEW YORKER though he seemed full of confidence, he smiled humbly. Nothing was too much trouble. P AMELA hdd insisted that the three of them should squeeze in to the front of the car, and Ursula, squashed in the middle, sat with rounded shoulders and her legs tucked to one side. She was worried about the creases in her skirt The wireless was on very loud, and both Pamela and Mike joined in the " p 0 S " f " D ' M 0 nze ong rom Ie eIster- singer." Ursula was glad when they reached The Swan. The parking lot was full. This pub was where everybody went, Pamela eXplained-"at the moment," she add- ed. In the garden, the striped umbrellas ahove the tables had he en furled; the bdskets of geraniums over the porch were swinging in the wind. "Astonishingly horrid evening," Mike said, when some of his acquaint- ances greeted him. "This is Pam's friend Ursula. Ursie, this is J ock"-or Jean, or Eve, or Bill Ursula lost track. They all knew one another, and Mike and Pam seemed popular. "Don't look now, the worst has hap- pened," someone had said in a loud voice when Ike opened the door of the Saloon Bar. Ursula was made much of. From tIme to time, most of them were obliged to bring out some dul] relation or duty guest ("Not really one of us"), and it was a mark of friend- liness to do one's best to help with other peo- ple's problems; even the most tiresome of old crones would be attend- ed to. And Ursula, although plump and prematurely gray, was only tou ready to smile and join in the fun. "You're one of us, I " can see, someone complimented her. "Cheers J" said U r- sula before she drank. Edith would have shiv- ered with distaste. "Weare all going H 0 1 ,,, P on to 1 ary s, am called to Mike, across the bar, at closing time. - .. .: ........ .......... '< . ; ^" '- "- -....... She guessed that to drive fast and to arrive first was somethIng he had to do, and, for his sake and to help on the amiability of the evening, she was glad that he had managed it. " Y ' 0' h 0 h h " au re SUre It s t e rIg t ouse? she asked. "Dead sure, my darling." She had never been called "darling" by a man, and, however meaningless the endearmen t, it added something to her self-esteem, as their arriving first had added something to his. She untied the scarf and gave It back to him. He had flicked on his cigarette lighter and was looking for something in the dash pocket. For a moment, while the small glow lasted, she could study his face. It was like a ventriloquist's dummy's-small, alert, yet blank The features gave the dppedr dnce of having been neatly painted. He found the packet of cigarettes; then he put the scarf round his neck and . d . f 11 " s ' 0" tIe It care u y. ome,)ne S cOfll'ng, he said. "They must ha ve double-crossed us and had one somewhere h " on t e way. "You drove fastest, h ' 11 " 1 0 t at sa, sIle s.JJG, playing her part in the game. "Sorry if it alarmed you, sweetheart." He leaned over and kIssed her quickly, just before the first of the cars came round the curve of the drive. This moving on was the occasion for a bttle change round of passengers, and instead of being squeezed in between Pamela and Mike, Ursula was to be driven by a man called Guy. "Daddy wil] give you a scarf for your head," he promised, helping her into his open car. The scarf tucked inside his shirt was yellow, patterned with horses, and when he took it off and tied it round Ursula's head, the silk was warm to her cheeks. They drove very fast along the dark- ening roads and were the first to arrive "Poor frozen girl," said Guy when he had swung the car round on the gra veIled sweep in front of the house and brought it up within an inch of the grass verge. With the driving off his mind, he could turn hIS atten- tion to Ursula, and he took one of her goose-fleshy arms between his hands and began to chafe it "\\That we need is a drink," he said "Where the hell have they all got to?" . $0 '" t " " V i .. \ II ..", ( II -:... I "- -....... ...è I ,.../1 I ""'" " o --T I l' ' ., , ( \ , þ O/?/P/V 29 \ T HAT'S the first evening gone, U r- sula thought when, later, she lay In bed, rather muzzily going over what had hap- pened. She could re- member the drawing room at Hilary's. She had sat on a cushion on the floor, and music from a gramophone above her had spilled over her head, so that she had seen people's mouths opening and shutting but had not been able to hear the matching con versa- tions. In many ways the room-though it was larger-had seemed like Pamela's, with pub signs instead of bottle labels on the lamp- shades. Her sense of